UNSC likely to vote on Israeli settlements
NEW YORK: The UN Security Council is expected to vote last night on demanding Israel halt settlements after four countries agreed to present a draft resolution that was withdrawn by Egypt, diplomats said.
New Zealand, Malaysia, Senegal and Venezuela stepped in after Egypt, under pressure from US President-elect Donald Trump, decided not to move forward with its push for a vote at the council, diplomats said.
“Most likely, we will have a vote soon,” French Ambassador Francois Delattre told reporters.
Egypt on Thursday requested that the vote be postponed a day after it submitted the draft text to the council, triggering immediate calls from Israel for a US veto to block the measure.
Israel asked Trump to intervene after learning that Washington, in a reversal of its policy under President Barack Obama, would not veto the resolution, an Israeli official said.
“The key goal that we have here is to preserve and reaffirm the two statesolution,” said Delattre.
“The text that we have does not exclusively focus on settlements. It also condemns the violence and terrorism. It also calls to prevent all incitement from the Palestinian side so this is a balanced text.”
Diplomats said the same draft resolution would be submitted to a vote, at the request of the four countries.
The draft resolution demands that “Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.”
It states that Israeli settlements have “no legal validity” and are “dangerously imperiling the viability of the two-state solution” that would see an independent Palestine co-exist alongside Israel.
Israeli settlements are seen as a major stumbling block to peace efforts, as they are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state.
The United Nations maintains that settlements are illegal, but UN officials have reported a surge in construction over the past months.
The United States intended to allow the UN Security Council to approve a resolution, a major reversal of US practice, which prompted Israel to ask Presidentelect to apply pressure.
The two Western officials said President Barack Obama had intended to abstain from the vote, a relatively rare step by the United States to register criticism of the building on occupied land that Palestinians want for a state.
The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has had an acrimonious relationship with Obama, believes the Obama administration had long planned the council vote in coordination with the Palestinians, the senior Israeli official said.
“It was a violation of a core commitment to protect Israel at the UN,” the official said.
The White House had no immediate comment.
US officials have voiced growing fears that a “two-state” solution is imperiled by Israeli settlement building and have been more willing to voice open criticism, including, the two Western officials said, via Thursday’s planned vote.
A US abstention would have been seen as a parting shot by Obama, who has made the settlements a major target of his — ultimately futile — peace efforts.
— AFP